Questions regarding TUPE'd terms and conditions

[cja]

Hello,

My company has recently been acquired, however we were fortunate enough to retain some enhanced terms and conditions (which I'll call "legacy T&Cs") as part of the acquisition, which are in excess of the standard terms and conditions (which I'll call "standard T&Cs") typically offered by the new company.

If I may, I have a couple of questions about how these TUPE'd terms and conditions should be respected by the new company moving foward.


1. When can legacy T&Cs be rescinded?

Is the new company allowed to align the legacy T&Cs with their standard T&Cs in either of the following scenarios, or do they still need to honour the legacy T&Cs:

1a. Promotion

1b. Application for reduced hours following the birth of a child

It seems (in my opinion) that the primary driver for this alignment is simplified administration.

I wonder if these cases would be treated differently as 1a is effectively a role change initiated by the company, whereas 1b is a change within the existing role requested by the employee?


2. When a policy is withdrawn, but entitlements remain, should the rest of the legacy policy terms be honoured?

As part of the variation to T&Cs, the legacy parental leave policy was withdrawn and replaced with the new company's standard parental leave policy (which has significantly reduced benefits). In order not to disadvantage imminent parents however, the entitlements from the legacy parental leave policy were retained for babies born before a specific date.

In the legacy parental leave policy, there was a requirement to remain with the company for a certain period of time following your return from parental leave, however the new company's parental leave policy does not have such a stipulation.

Ethics aside, would this requirement still remain, given that the policy was withdrawn with only the entitlements remaining?


Many thanks in advance for any advice you are able to kindly provide for either of these questions!

[ULA]

Firstly just to say TUPE is quite complex.

The new employer cannot change an employee's terms and conditions if the reason is the transfer itself or a reason connected to the transfer which is not an economic, technical or organisational reason entailing changes in the workforce.

Just to put some definition around EOT. I have set these out below:

Economic - reasons are to do with how the company is performing.

Technical - reasons are to do with the equipment or processes the company uses.

Organisational r- easons are to do with the structure of the company

Attempt to harmonise terms will be void unless an EOT reason can be justified.


Non contractual policies, which most are, can be liable to change as it appears has happened with the maternity policy. I would say that if the legacy maternity policy has been retained for babies born before a specific date, then it has been done so in its entirety and that stipulation would apply.